Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1932)

November 5, 1932 ROUND TABLE CLUB MANAGERS TABLE CLUB dAn international association of showmen meeting weekly in MOTION PICTURE HERALD for mutual aid and progress CHARL chairman mi editor THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBES SHADES OF THE OLD medicine man! We've discovered him. Who? None other than "Doc" Lee, physician extraordinary to the poor, down-trodden box office. Is your theatre suffering from low blood pressure at the ticket machine? Has it been severely run down and well nigh due for a nervous breakdown? Does its joints squeak from lack of use? Have you been wondering whether it ought to have an operation or whether it would be more merciful to let it die a peaceful death? SO LONG AS THERE'S life there's hope and so long as there's hope there's Joe Lee, and we'll stake our reservation in the hereafter that the good, old (in experience) reliable "Doc" can feel your theatre's pulse, stick his finger into its innards, measure its possibilities and then write out a prescription or two that will make Ponce de Leon's much-talkedabout fountain of youth look like the well-known hooey. What's the occasion for this rave, asks you? Well, we'll try to tell you. It was like this: About ten days ago we were finally able to steal a night off and duck across the bridge to where Lee makes his headquarters. There, much to our surprise in this era of depression and deserted box offices, we found a line and a crowd and four policemen to keep them from pushing the theatre off the block. "WHAT'S THIS?" WE ASKED ourself. Have we suddenly been transplanted back to the good old days? It certainly looked like it. So we battled our way through the crowds and up to the private sanctum of the "Doc." Sort of bearded the lion in his den, as it were, but we were keen to find out how he was lining them up when so many other theatres were darned near starving to death. The answer was even more simple than you'd suspect. GOOD OLD CIRCUS STUFF. There's "Doc's" prescription and you don't have to pay a dime for it either. You may well ask, just what do you mean by good old circus stuff? Exactly what we said. He has turned back the clock to those days when a showman wanting to tell his public that he had something for them to see, made up one of those dramatic looking, yet seat-selling circulars that not only made them stop and read, but also run to the box office. AND "DOC" DOES NOT STOP at circulars in his health campaign for the theatres under his supervision. He's giving them today what brought them out in droves in years gone by: A real old-fashioned amateur night with all of the trimmings. Does it pull? Well, they were staging one the night we put in an appearance and they were packed right up to the well-known rafters. Picture that sight: A crowd out front, a line a half block long, a theatre with standees jammed in the back of the orchestra, and both balconies, plus a few who were enterprising enough to sit on the steps along the way down those balconies. That's doing business, brother, and we don't mean maybe. ALL OF THE OLD HOKUM that was sure-fire in days of yore, that's Joe Lee's prescription for every failing box office, and after a period of over a year, when crying was the most popular theatrical pastime, his houses are all doing business, and plenty of it. Is that proof enough that where there's a will and a real showman, there is surely a way out of your troubles? Give Dave Stern, too, a great big hand for his aid on those amateur night gags; ditto for the Irish night, etc. This is the sort of stuff that is making Lee's houses the most popular amusement places in their respective communities. And, says Joe, if that's what they want he'll give it to them. THERE IS SOMETHING reminiscent about this guy Lee. In fact, he's a sort of a puzzle because when you look at him he reminds you of something of the old days, yet the moment you start talking to him you fully realize that here is a man as young and dynamic as one could hope to meet in many miles of travel. Restless, with a mind always alert and planning, he has that rarely found faculty of looking deep into the difficulties of each individual situation and arriving at the correct answer. And when a man can repeat that a dozen times out of twelve, then it's far from luck or "the breaks" — it's ability, and in no small measure. IF YOU WANT TO SEE showbusiness as we recall it in the good old days, take our tip and travel over to see "Doc" Lee. He's operating on a patient every day and none of them have died yet. Good ol' "Doc." "CHICK"